Late last August, UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s revived one of its promotional partnerships with LEGO, the Create the World collectible card series. A new set of LEGO trading cards were introduced to put together in a new volume called “Incredible Inventions”. But a recent event threatens to put a damper on the LEGO collecting fun. Much like its previous edition, collecting the new LEGO cards consists of buying a minimum £10 shopping tag at a Sainsbury’s store to receive a 4-card foil pack. In Kent however, a mother returning from her local Sainsbury’s to discover a cutter blade in a LEGO card foil pack she brought home for her child.
“It didn’t look like it had been tampered with so when I got home I just put the card packs on the table,” recalls Kirsty Thorne to the BBC. “They were all playing at the table going through the cards and that’s when my son brought it to my attention.”
From her own examination the blade, a refill for a snap-off utility cutter blade, was simply placed in the pack with the four cards before sealing, possibly an industrial error. The fact that the blade was small enough to fit the pack meant it was not detected until somebody bought it.
A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s noted that the chain is aware of the cutter blade slipped into a LEGO Create the World card pack and are bringing the matter up with their supplier, though the consensus is that it was an isolated accident. Still, the Sainsbury’s store that Mrs. Thorne shopped from to get the card pack has returned her £10 shopping payment by way of apology.
The mother herself is simply relieved that nothing much worse happened, especially considering that her son had opened the foil pack with his teeth, risking injury from the included blade.
